Abordagem terapêutica na obesidade por profissionais de saúde na atenção básica

Abstract

Health care is executed into shared culturally constructed values. Obesity therapy transcends aspects of the health sphere and is influenced by how society perceives obesity and the subject with obesity. The health professional operates the therapy within these limits of the culture in which it is inserted The purpose of this study is understand how obesity is approached and the scientific perspective is reinterpreted by culture. This is a qualitative study with interviews and field observations in basic health units of two brazilian cities: one in small town and another in a capital on the coast. We interviewed 17 health professionals (doctors, nurses and community health workers (CHW)) as well as observation of the routines in both units. Data analysis was conducted by thematic analysis of Braun and Clarke, 2006. After the first stage of analysis, the main investigator returned to each location to question and address the points that emerged during the first phase of the analyzes. The subjects were: The obesity is not recognized like disease; Treatment of obesity, tools and contexts; Obesity at the individual level. In the observation of professional practice and discourse, obesity is a risk factor and comorbidity that emerges as a health problem when associated with diseases. At the same time, living with excess weight is not felt as a health problem for people who access the service. A complexity of obesity is embodied in the discourse of health professionals as well as an impotence, a lack of tools and resources to treat themselves manifest in the therapeutic approach that has an obesity as a condition limited in the treatment of chronic diseases.